Yoga Changes Things + This Week’s Workouts

byJenonMarch 16, 2014

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. Per usual, mine was yoga focused. I always teach on Saturday and Sunday mornings but it was also a yoga teacher training weekend for Y2 and I am assisting with training this year so my afternoons were spent in the training.

I am approaching my third anniversary of teaching yoga and I still find myself moved to tears and filled with gratitude on a weekly basis for my yoga practice and the opportunity to share it with others through teaching. Developing a personal yoga practice and going through teacher training has probably been the most revolutionary thing in my life. EVER. And now I can’t even begin to describe what it’s like to be on the other side and observe others go through the experience of teacher training. I cried three times yesterday. Its so paradoxical in its beauty and pain.

There are so many posts that I want to write about practicing yoga and going through teacher training but it’s hard for me to even find the words to adequately express it. For now I’ll just say that I can’t believe that I wake up every day without EVER dreading the work ahead of me and that yoga showed me the path to recognizing my strengths and believing that it is possible to make a living and live a life that is fueled by your passions and gifts.

Expect a lot more yoga posts from me later this spring/summer but for now let’s move on to this week’s workouts.

It was our programmer’s birthday and in CrossFit there is a “birthday burpee” tradition. He designed a chipper workout around this. I did a modified version of it and skipped the rowing at the beginning and end of the workout. It wasn’t in the cards for me due to lack of adequate fuel!

Thursday

Hot yoga

I stayed after I taught and took half of another teacher’s class. Easy day.

Friday

Circuit training

I did this circuit training workout with a 500 meter row at the beginning of each of the three rounds.

Saturday

30 minute run + 30 minute walk

75 degree day in Charlotte called for an outdoor workout.

Sunday

Yoga

I attended a friend of mine’s class tonight after I wrapped up teacher training. You’d think the last thing I would want to do would be to practice yoga after spending the weekend teaching it and in a teacher training but it was EXACTLY what I needed to wrap up the weekend. My friend just completed his teacher training last year and this was only the second class of his that I’ve taken. It was perfect and one of the best practices I’ve had in a long time. I left feeling like a relaxed noodle who just got the ultimate yoga massage. Good stuff.

Overall it was a light week but an intuitive one. Body is feeling really great.

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Hi Jen, I Love your blog and enjoy your yoga posts very much. So glad to hear you will be doing more, please do more video posts showing how to get into poses. I have recently been thinking about doing teacher certification but Iam worried at my age (46) I’m too old to achieve a lot of the poses. I would love to hear how/what brought you too yoga, and can teacher teacher training teach “anyone” to become a yogi?

From what I have read about teacher training (from studios where I live), it doesn’t teach you to become a yogi, you have to be a yogi before, with a daily pratice ideally. Maybe it differs according to the policies of each studio.

Lori – thanks so much for reading my blog! I’m glad you enjoy it! I will definitely have more video tutorials and short flow sequences coming this summer.

YOU ARE NOT TOO OLD TO DO TEACHER TRAINING! yoga teacher training is not about having an advanced physical practice but instead about deepening your knowledge of yoga and understanding of yourself and your place in the world. we have had yogis as young as 17 and as old as 65 do our teacher training program. everyone comes from a different walk of life and that’s what makes it so amazing. we all share our unique perspectives and life experiences. you don’t have to be a seasoned yogi to do teacher training…you just have to be ready. we’ve had participants with 4 months of yoga experience, 4 years and 14 years…it totally depends on when the individual is ready.

i guess things are just different in charlotte. most of the studios here that offer teacher trainings only require a love for and dedication to yoga. i would say that over half the people who go through training never even plan on teaching, they just want to deepen their understanding of yoga and their personal practice! i think it’s awesome that the education is so accessible to so many!

I just posted my week of workouts on my blog too. It was a decent week. I actually practiced yoga five times (didn’t realize it was so many until I went back and counted) but three of them were really mellow practices (one a workshop styled class, one a yoga basics class that I attend weekly with my mom and one a yin class!) so it’s not as crazy as it seems.

Random question, but I’ve noticed a few times that you said you take half a yoga class or part of a yoga class. At your studio is it OK to just get up and leave whenever, or do you finish off lying in savasana? At my studio it is SO taboo to leave early and no-one ever does it unless they are really sick or something, so just curious about how it works at other studios 🙂

so i teach at two studios here in town. at one everyone arrives on time and stays until the end of the class and at the other we have a more come and go culture. our take is that we have no idea what is going on in people’s lives and we want them to get in as much yoga as they can. so coming late and leaving early are more widely accepted. it’s a good and a bad thing.

it’s so much about finding a style, studio and teacher that clicks with what you need. i spent YEARS resisting yoga and only doing it occasionally because i thought it was something i “should be doing” because of my running.

as i wrote to sara, it took me YEARS to fall in love with yoga. you just have to find the right style, studio and teacher that fits with you and your needs. we’re really spoiled here in charlotte. we have really amazing yoga here.

yikes! good luck. i have never been brave enough to go for one of those races. i did one kind of cheesy mud run and then hung up my obstacle course racing shoes. i’ve heard the tough mudders are a whole different level!

Your weekend post are always so relaxing and I love it! This weekend I was on the couch most of the weekend due to being sick, but next weekend I have some trail runs planned and hopefully some yoga as well! 🙂

Your yoga posts are one of the few things that can motivate/remind me to stretch. Finally starting to get back into road cycling with the changing weather and daylight savings. Just have to remember to keep stretching my rides.

I’m in yoga teacher training right now and so far it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. Oh and I’m 43, I’m not the oldest in my class either. I think you can be a teacher at any age! 🙂

I love these workout recap posts! It keeps me motivated to fit in some type of physical activity every day.
Your blog actually helped me gather the courage to try yoga at a studio…I don’t know why, but it’s always intimidated me. I went for my first class last week (hot) and have fallen in love. Thanks!

I really loved reading this. I have been a Pilates instructor for 5 years, and also am a certified personal trainer. I just – after so much thought – registered for a 200 hr yoga teacher training program. I have always had a home practice, but your blog really inspired me to get back to the studio. Which then led to this latest step. So thank you. I am both excited and nervous, but I know it’s the right step.

Oh I love that yoga pose! It has taken me a long time to be able to do it, but like yoga + life, sometimes you just have to go for it, be fearless, and trust your heart and strength. I hope someday we can take a class together! Stay warm…the sun has finally come out in Houston. XOXO

I’m curious as to whether you, as a personal trainer and ‘fitness professional’, would ever encourage a client to deprive themselves of food to the point where they had inadequate fuel to complete a crossfit or similar workout.

To me this seems like starving yourself for the sake of appearance and at the expense of health and energy. Thoughts?

hey wendy – i’m glad you asked this. i definitely wasn’t “starving myself” last week and i never wrote those words. on an average day i eat between 2,000-2,500 calories due to my activity level. for a few days around the shoot i did reduce my overall calories but i was still in the range of 1,500 a day, therefore i reduced my activity level. i encourage my clients to eat the appropriate amount to sustain their daily activity. some are more sedentary, some are more active. more times than not i’m advising them to eat MORE because many females over restrict calories and it’s counteractive to the results they want to see. and yes, i would encourage them to drink juice and smoothies and eat lots of lean protein and veggies (but NOT to starve themselves) for a short period of time if they were doing something like a fitness photo shoot.

I think that with the kind of body you already have, VERY athletic and lean, you didn’t have to restrict yourself during that period. Your book will be as good and as professionnal if you have one or two more pounds on you 🙂

I'm Jen and I'm a personal trainer, yoga teacher and the author of Ultimate Plank Fitness and The Complete Guide to Yoga Inversions. I live in Charlotte, NC and share daily updates about food, fitness, yoga and life with two golden retrievers! You can reach me at jen@peanutbutterrunner.com.